15 August - Nostradamus, invited by the queen, arrives in Paris[6][7] after passing Lyon.[8] He is received at the Court, in Paris and Blois.

10 November - In Brazil, a French expedition strong of three ships[9] and 600 colonists and directed by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, lord of Torcy and vice-admiral of Brittany, settles in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, to constitute the starting point of a Protestant[9] colony called "France Antarctique" (Antarctic France).[10] Around Guanabara, where the colony settles, two tribes, the Tupinambás and the Margaïas fight each other continuously, submitting their respective prisoners to the worst abuse,[11] the colony of Fort Coligny, built by Villegaignon and his nephew Legendre de Boissy[9] on the Villegaignon island, will be destroyed by the Portuguese on 16 March 1560.[9][12]

1.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

2.
History of France
–
The first written records for the history of France appear in the Iron Age. The Gauls, the largest and best attested group, were Celtic people speaking what is known as the Gaulish language, over the course of the 1st millennium BC the Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians established colonies on the Mediterranean coast and the offshore islands. Afterwards a Gallo-Roman culture emerged and Gaul was increasingly integrated into the Roman Empire, in the later stages of the Roman Empire, Gaul was subject to barbarian raids and migration, most importantly by the Germanic Franks. The Frankish king Clovis I united most of Gaul under his rule in the late 5th century, Frankish power reached its fullest extent under Charlemagne. The war formally began in 1337 following Philip VIs attempt to seize the Duchy of Aquitaine from its holder, Edward III of England. Despite early Plantagenet victories, including the capture and ransom of John II of France, among the notable figures of the war was Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who led French forces against the English, establishing herself as a national heroine. The war ended with a Valois victory in 1453, victory in the Hundred Years War had the effect of strengthening French nationalism and vastly increasing the power and reach of the French monarchy. During the period known as the Ancien Régime, France transformed into an absolute monarchy. During the next centuries, France experienced the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation, Henry, King of Navarre, scion of the Bourbon family, would be victorious in the conflict and establish the French Bourbon dynasty. A burgeoning worldwide colonial empire was established in the 16th century, French political power reached a zenith under the rule of Louis XIV, The Sun King, builder of Versailles Palace. In the late 18th century the monarchy and associated institutions were overthrown in the French Revolution, the country was governed for a period as a Republic, until the French Empire was declared by Napoleon Bonaparte. France was one of the Triple Entente powers in World War I, fighting alongside the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, the United States and smaller allies against Germany and the Central Powers. France was one of the Allied Powers in World War II, the Third Republic was dismantled, and most of the country was controlled directly by Germany while the south was controlled until 1942 by the collaborationist Vichy government. Living conditions were harsh as Germany drained away food and manpower, Charles de Gaulle led the Free France movement that one-by-one took over the colonial empire, and coordinated the wartime Resistance. Following liberation in summer 1944, a Fourth Republic was established, France slowly recovered economically, and enjoyed a baby boom that reversed its very low fertility rate. Long wars in Indochina and Algeria drained French resources and ended in political defeat, in the wake of the Algerian Crisis of 1958, Charles de Gaulle set up the French Fifth Republic. Into the 1960s decolonization saw most of the French colonial empire become independent, while smaller parts were incorporated into the French state as overseas departments, since World War II France has been a permanent member in the UN Security Council and NATO. It played a role in the unification process after 1945 that led to the European Union

3.
Jacques de Sores
–
Jacques de Sores was a French pirate who attacked and burnt Havana, Cuba in 1555. Other than his attack on Havana, little is known of de Sores and he was nicknamed The Exterminating Angel. He was the leader of a band of Huguenot pirates and a lieutenant or former lieutenant of another French pirate, François le Clerc, who was called Pegleg or Jambe de Bois on account of his wooden leg. Le Clerc had raided Santiago de Cuba in 1554, and some accounts mention a raid on Santiago de Cuba by de Sores and he may have used Cayo Romano and Cayo Coco in the archipelago of Jardines del Rey adjacent to the northern Cuban coast as a base of operations. Details of the attack on Havana are also sketchy, the number of ships that de Sores used in the attack varies in different accounts from 2 to 20, regardless of the number of ships involved, de Sores had little trouble in capturing the lightly defended town. Most accounts make it clear that he was expecting to find stores of gold in the town, while some claim he ransomed important members of the population. All agree that whatever his intention he was frustrated, he did not find vast reserves of gold in the city and he destroyed the fortress of La Fuerza Vieja in todays Calle Tacón and burnt most of the town. He also burnt the shipping in the harbour and laid waste to much of the surrounding countryside, the ease with which de Sores had captured the town prompted the Spanish crown to start a massive fortification programme. On 15 July 1570 he murdered 40 Jesuit missionaries and threw their bodies into the sea off Tazacorte in the Canary Islands of La Palma- crosses on the sea floor still mark the site at Malpique today, france-Americas relations Les ange noirs de la liberté. Archived from the original on 10 January 2007, under the Black Flag, The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Cuba,400 Years of Architectural Heritage

4.
Havana
–
Havana is the capital city, largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city extends mostly westward and southward from the bay, which is entered through a narrow inlet, the sluggish Almendares River traverses the city from south to north, entering the Straits of Florida a few miles west of the bay. King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City in 1592, walls as well as forts were built to protect the old city. The sinking of the U. S. battleship Maine in Havanas harbor in 1898 was the cause of the Spanish–American War. Contemporary Havana can essentially be described as three cities in one, Old Havana, Vedado and the suburban districts. The city is the center of the Cuban government, and home to various ministries, headquarters of businesses, the current mayor is Marta Hernández of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 2009, the city/province had the third highest income in the country, the city attracts over a million tourists annually, the Official Census for Havana reports that in 2010 the city was visited by 1,176,627 international tourists, a 20% increase from 2005. Old Havana was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, the city is also noted for its history, culture, architecture and monuments. As typical of Cuba, Havana also features a tropical climate, in May 2015, Havana was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, La Paz, Durban, Beirut, and Kuala Lumpur. Most native settlements became the site of Spanish colonial cities retaining their original Taíno names, an alternate theory is that Habana is derived from the Middle Dutch word havene, referring to a harbour, etymologically related to the English word haven. All attempts to found a city on Cubas south coast failed, however, an early map of Cuba drawn in 1514 places the town at the mouth of this river. The town that became Havana finally originated adjacent to what was then called Puerto de Carenas, the quality of this natural bay, which now hosts Havanas harbor, warranted this change of location. Pánfilo de Narváez gave Havana – the sixth town founded by the Spanish on Cuba – its name, the name combines San Cristóbal, patron saint of Havana. Shortly after the founding of Cubas first cities, the served as little more than a base for the Conquista of other lands. Havana began as a port, and suffered regular attacks by buccaneers, pirates. The first attack and resultant burning of the city was by the French corsair Jacques de Sores in 1555, ships from all over the New World carried products first to Havana, in order to be taken by the fleet to Spain. The thousands of ships gathered in the bay also fueled Havanas agriculture and manufacture, since they had to be supplied with food, water. On December 20,1592, King Philip II of Spain granted Havana the title of City, later on, the city would be officially designated as Key to the New World and Rampart of the West Indies by the Spanish Crown

5.
Henry II of France
–
Henry II was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis III, Duke of Brittany, as a child, Henry and his elder brother spent over four years in captivity in Spain as hostages in exchange for their father. Henry pursued his fathers policies in matter of arts, wars and he persevered in the Italian Wars against the House of Habsburg and tried to suppress the Protestant Reformation, even as the Huguenot numbers were increasing drastically in France during his reign. Henry suffered a death in a jousting tournament held to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis at the conclusion of the Eighth Italian War. The kings surgeon, Ambroise Paré, was unable to cure the infected wound inflicted by Gabriel de Montgomery and he was succeeded in turn by three of his sons, whose ineffective reigns helped to spark the French Wars of Religion between Protestants and Catholics. Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris and his father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by the forces of his sworn enemy, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and held prisoner in Spain. To obtain his release, it was agreed that Henry and his brother be sent to Spain in his place. They remained in captivity for four years. Henry married Catherine de Medici, a member of the family of Florence, on 28 October 1533. The following year, he became involved with a thirty-five-year-old widow. They had always very close, she had publicly embraced him on the day he set off to Spain. Diane became Henrys mistress and most trusted confidante and, for the next years, wielded considerable influence behind the scenes. Extremely confident, mature and intelligent, she left Catherine powerless to intervene and she did, however, insist that Henry sleep with Catherine in order to produce heirs to the throne. When his elder brother Francis, the Dauphin and Duke of Brittany, died in 1536 after a game of tennis and he succeeded his father on his 28th birthday and was crowned King of France on 25 July 1547 at Reims Cathedral. Henrys reign was marked by wars with Austria and the persecution of Protestants, Henry II severely punished them, particularly the ministers, for example by burning at the stake or cutting off their tongues for uttering heresies. Even those only suspected of being Huguenots could be imprisoned and it also strictly regulated publications by prohibiting the sale, importation or printing of any unapproved book. It was during the reign of Henry II that Huguenot attempts at establishing a colony in Brazil were made, persecution of Protestants at home did not prevent Henry II from becoming allied with German Protestant princes at the Treaty of Chambord in 1552. Simultaneously, the continuation of his fathers Franco-Ottoman alliance allowed Henry II to push for French conquests towards the Rhine while a Franco-Ottoman fleet defended southern France, an early offensive into Lorraine was successful

6.
France Antarctique
–
France Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. The colony quickly became a haven for the Huguenots, and was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567. Europeans first arrived in Brazil in April 1500, when a fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral on behalf of the Portuguese crown arrived in present-day Porto Seguro, except for Salvador and São Vicente, however, the territory still remained largely unexplored half a century later. His travels were succeeded by that of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville in 1504 onboard LEspoir, Gonneville affirmed that when he visited Brazil, French traders from Saint-Malo and Dieppe had already been trading there for several years. France continued to trade with Brazil, especially loading Brazilwood, for its use as a red dyes for textiles. In 1550, in the entry for Henry II of France, at Rouen, about fifty men depicted naked Indians. The fort was named in honor of Gaspard de Coligny, an admiral who supported the expedition, Villegaignon secured his position by making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupinambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese. Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who took little notice of his landing. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge, to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin. They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray, including theologians Pierre Richier, the relief fleet was composed of, The Petite Roberge, with 80 soldiers and sailors was led by Vice Admiral Sieur De Bois le Comte. The Grande Roberge, with about 120 on board, captained by Sieur de Sainte-Marie dit lEspine, the Rosée, with about 90 people, led by Captain Rosée. Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557 the Calvinists were banished from Coligny island as a result. In 1560 Mem de Sá, the new Governor-General of Brazil, Admiral Villegaignon had returned to France in 1558, disgusted with the religious tension that existed between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group. Estácio de Sá founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1,1565, colignys and Villegaignons dream had lasted a mere 12 years. Largely in response to the two attempts of France to conquer territory in Brazil, between 1612 and 1615, the Portuguese crown decided to expand its efforts in Brazil. In the 17th century, France again briefly established a colony in Brazil with the establishment of France Equinoxiale, investors in this venture doubled their money, and Duguay-Trouin earned a promotion to Lieutenant général de la Marine. André Thevet, Les singularités de la France antartique,1558, French in Brazil, Saint-Alexis, France Antarctique and Sao Luis de Maranhao

7.
Amboise
–
Amboise is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. It lies on the banks of the Loire River,27 kilometres east of Tours, today a small market town, it was once home of the French royal court. The town of Amboise is also only about 18 kilometres away from the historic Château de Chenonceau and its former name was Ambacia, from the old name of the river and marsh Amasse. The narrow streets contain some good examples of timbered housing, just outside the city is the Pagode de Chanteloup, a 44 m tall Chinese Pagoda built in 1775 by the Duke of Choiseul. The Pagoda is seven levels high, with each level slightly smaller than the last one, an interior staircase to reach all levels is open to the public. The Musée de la Poste is a museum tracing the history of the delivery service. A 20th-century fountain by Max Ernst stands in front of the market place, clovis I and the Visigoths signed a peace treaty of alliance with the Arvernians in 503, which assisted him in his defeat of the Visigothic kingdom in the Battle of Vouillé in 507. Joan of Arc passed through in 1429 on her way to Orleans to the Battle of Patay, the Amboise conspiracy was the conspiracy of Condé and the Huguenots in 1560 against Francis II, Catherine de Medici, and the Guises. The Edict of Amboise conceded the free exercise of worship to the Protestants, the Château at Amboise was home to Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, for much of her early life, being raised there at the French court of Henry II. Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life in Amboise, some of his inventions are still there and have not been removed. Leonardo died in the arms of King Francis I, and he was buried in a crypt near the Chateau dAmboise, the house has lost some of its original parts, but it still stands today and has a beautiful overlook of the Loire River. Here was born in 1743 – Louis Claude de Saint-Martin French philosopher, abd el Kader Ibn Mouhi Ad-Din was imprisoned at the Château dAmboise

8.
Pope Paul IV
–
Pope Paul IV, C. R. born Gian Pietro Carafa, was Pope from 23 May 1555 to his death in 1559. Carafa was appointed bishop of Chieti, but resigned in 1524 in order to found with St. Cajetan the Congregation of Clerics Regular. Recalled to Rome, and made Archbishop of Naples, he was instrumental in setting up the Roman Inquisition, Carafa was elected pope in 1555 through the influence of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in the face of opposition from Emperor Charles V. His papacy was characterized by strong nationalism in reaction to the influence of Philip II of Spain and he compelled the Jews of Rome to wear distinctive clothing and confine themselves to a ghetto. The appointment of Carlo Carafa as Cardinal Nephew damaged the papacy further when Paul was forced to remove him from following a scandal. He curbed many clerical abuses in Rome but his methods were seen as harsh, Gian Pietro Carafa was born in Capriglia Irpina, near Avellino, into a prominent noble family of Naples. He was mentored by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, his relative, who resigned the see of Chieti in his favour, following the sack of Rome in 1527, the order moved to Venice. In December 1536 he was made Cardinal-Priest of S. Pancrazio, in response, Carafa was able to persuade Pope Paul III to set up a Roman Inquisition, modelled on the Spanish Inquisition with himself as one of the Inquisitors-General. The Papal Bull was promulgated in 1542 and Carafa vowed, Even if my own father were a heretic and he accepted apparently because Emperor Charles V was opposed to his accession. As pope his nationalism was a force, he used the office to preserve some liberties in the face of fourfold foreign occupation. Like Pope Paul III, he was an enemy of the Colonna family and his treatment of Giovanna dAragona, who had married into that family, drew further negative comment from Venice. This because she had long been a patron of artists and writers, as Cardinal-nephew, Carlo Carafa became his uncles chief political adviser. Having accepted a pension from the French, Cardinal Caraffa worked to secure a French alliance, carlos older brother Giovanni was made commander of the papal forces and Duke of Paliano after the pro-Spanish Colonna were deprived of that town in 1556. Another nephew, Antonio, was given command of the Papal guard and their conduct became notorious in Rome. With the Protestant Reformation, the Papacy required all Roman Catholic rulers to consider Protestant rulers as heretics, Paul IV issued a papal bull in 1555, Ilius, per quem Reges regnant, recognising Philip and Mary as King and Queen of England and its dominions including Ireland. He also angered people in England by insisting on the restitution of property confiscated during the dissolution, Paul IV was violently opposed to the liberal Giovanni Cardinal Morone whom he strongly suspected of being a hidden Protestant, so much that he had him imprisoned. Paul IV was rigidly orthodox, austere in life, and authoritarian in manner and he affirmed the Catholic doctrine of extra ecclesiam nulla salus. He used the Holy Office to suppress the Spirituali, a Catholic group deemed heretical, on 17 July 1555, Paul IV issued one of the most famous papal bulls in Church history

9.
Pope
–
The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable

10.
Pope Marcellus II
–
Pope Marcellus II, born Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi, was pope of the Catholic Church from 9 April 1555 until his death 22 days later on 1 May 1555. Before his accession as pope he had been Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, after his death, it would be 423 years before another pope would choose a name with an ordinal number less than IV. A native of Montefano, a village near Macerata and Loreto he was the son of Ricardo Cervini who was the Apostolic Treasurer in Ancona. The family originated in Tuscany, in the town of Montepulciano, which had once been subject to Siena, Marcello had two half-brothers, Alexander and Romulus. One of his sisters, Cinzia Cervini, married Vincenzo Bellarmino, Marcello was educated locally, and at Siena and Florence, where he became proficient in writing Latin, Greek, and Italian. He also received instruction in jurisprudence, philosophy, and mathematics and his father had an interest in astrology and upon discovering that his sons horoscope presaged high ecclesiastical honours, Riccardo set the young Cervini on a path to the priesthood. After his period of study at Siena, Cervini traveled to Rome in the company of the Delegation sent by Florence to congratulate the new Pope on his election and his father and Pope Clement VII were personal friends, and Marcello was made Scrittore Apostolico. He was set to work on astronomical and calendar studies, a project which was intended to bring the back into synchronization with the seasons. In 1527, he fled home after the Sack of Rome, Cervini was ordained a priest in 1535. In 1534, after Farnese had become pope Pope Paul III, Cervini was appointed a papal secretary and he was made a papal Protonotarius. He travelled in the suite of the Pope during the visit to Nice. He then accompanied the young Cardinal Farnese on a trip to Spain, France, Paul III later appointed him bishop of Nicastro, Italy in 1539. Cervini was not, however, consecrated bishop until the day he himself was elected pope, while he was still on the embassy to the Netherlands, Paul III created him the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on 19 December 1539. When, almost immediately after, Cardinal Farnese was recalled to Rome, over the course of next decade Cervini also became the apostolic administrator of the dioceses of Reggio and Gubbio. He continued to serve in that role throughout the remainder of Paul IIIs papacy after which he was replaced to placate the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in 1548 he was granted the supervision of the Vatican Library, with the title of Protettore della Biblioteca Apostolica. During his administration, he employed the services of Marcello and Sirleto and he added more than 500 codices to the holdings of the Library, including 143 Greek codices, as his own entry book testifies. In the conclave of 1549–50 to elect a successor to Paul III, fifty-one cardinals, including Marcello Cervini, the initial candidates included Cardinals Pole, Sfondrati, Carpi and Ridolfi. Pole, the favorite of the Emperor Charles V, came two votes of being elected in the first scrutinies, but he could not attract any additional votes

11.
Inquisition
–
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the government system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. It started in 12th-century France to combat religious sectarianism, in particular the Cathars, other groups investigated later included the Spiritual Franciscans, the Hussites and Beguines. Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, the term Medieval Inquisition covers these courts up to mid-15th century. During the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the concept and scope of the Inquisition significantly expanded in response to the Protestant Reformation and it expanded to other European countries, resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The Spanish and Portuguese operated inquisitorial courts throughout their empires in Africa, Asia, the institution survived as part of the Roman Curia, but in 1908 was given the new name of Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. In 1965 it became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the term Inquisition comes from Medieval Latin inquisitio, which referred to any court process that was based on Roman law, which had gradually come back into usage in the late medieval period. Today, the English term Inquisition can apply to any one of several institutions that worked against heretics within the system of the Roman Catholic Church. He Inquisition, as a church-court, had no jurisdiction over Moors, generally, the Inquisition was concerned only with the heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts. The overwhelming majority of sentences seem to have consisted of penances like wearing a cross sewn on ones clothes, going on pilgrimage, etc. The laws were inclusive of proscriptions against certain religious crimes, thus the inquisitors generally knew what would be the fate of anyone so remanded, and cannot be considered to have divorced the means of determining guilt from its effects. The 1578 edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum spelled out the purpose of inquisitorial penalties, quoniam punitio non refertur primo & per se in correctionem & bonum eius qui punitur, sed in bonum publicum ut alij terreantur, & a malis committendis avocentur. Such punishments had a number of opponents, although some countries punished heresy with the death penalty. In the 12th century, to counter the spread of Catharism, the Church charged councils composed of bishops and archbishops with establishing inquisitions. The first Inquisition was temporarily established in Languedoc in 1184, the murder of Pope Innocents papal legate Pierre de Castelnau in 1208 sparked the Albigensian Crusade. The Inquisition was permanently established in 1229, run largely by the Dominicans in Rome, historians use the term Medieval Inquisition to describe the various inquisitions that started around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition and later the Papal Inquisition. Other Inquisitions followed after these first inquisition movements, by 1256 inquisitors were given absolution if they used instruments of torture. In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX assigned the duty of carrying out inquisitions to the Dominican Order, Most inquisitors were friars who taught theology and/or law in the universities. They used inquisitorial procedures, a legal practice adapted from the earlier Ancient Roman court procedures

12.
House of Habsburg
–
The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance

13.
Naples
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Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320, Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, a larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II, much of the citys 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolinis fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II. The city has experienced significant economic growth in recent decades, and unemployment levels in the city, however, Naples still suffers from political and economic corruption, and unemployment levels remain high. Naples has the fourth-largest urban economy in Italy, after Milan, Rome and it is the worlds 103rd-richest city by purchasing power, with an estimated 2011 GDP of US$83.6 billion. The port of Naples is one of the most important in Europe, numerous major Italian companies, such as MSC Cruises Italy S. p. A, are headquartered in Naples. The city also hosts NATOs Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the SRM Institution for Economic Research, Naples is a full member of the Eurocities network of European cities. The city was selected to become the headquarters of the European institution ACP/UE and was named a City of Literature by UNESCOs Creative Cities Network, the Villa Rosebery, one of the three official residences of the President of Italy, is located in the citys Posillipo district. Naples historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares and enclosing 27 centuries of history, Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta, culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city. Neapolitan music has furthermore been highly influential, credited with the invention of the romantic guitar, according to CNN, the metro stop Toledo is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award 2013 as Public building of the year. Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, Naples sports scene is dominated by football and Serie A club S. S. C. Napoli, two-time Italian champions and winner of European trophies, who play at the San Paolo Stadium in the south-west of the city, the Phlegraean Fields around Naples has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC, sailors from the Greek island of Rhodes established a small commercial port called Parthenope on the island of Megaride in the ninth century BC

14.
Antoine of Navarre
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Antoine was the King of Navarre through his marriage to Queen Jeanne III, from 1555 until his death. He was the first monarch of the House of Bourbon, of which he was head from 1537 and he was the father of Henry IV of France. He was born at La Fère, Picardy, France, the son of Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme. He was the brother of Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé. On 20 October 1548, at Moulins, he married Jeanne III, Queen regnant of Navarre, daughter of Henry II of Navarre and his wife Margaret of Angoulême. By his marriage, he became King of Navarre, Count of Foix, of Bigorre, of Armagnac, of Périgord and it was reported that Jeanne was much in love with him, but his subsequent actions show that he had little loyalty to her. The southern territory of the Kingdom of Navarre had been occupied by the Spanish since 1512 and he was ready to sacrifice anything to his political interests. Antoine appears not to have had real religious conviction and officially changed religions several times and his reconversion to Catholicism separated him from his wife and he threatened to repudiate her. He had an affair with Louise de La Béraudière de lIsle Rouhet, la belle Rouet, with whom he had a son, although his brother Louis was the head of the Protestant faction, Antoine spent most of his life fighting for the King of France. Catherine de Medici, regent for her son Charles IX, named him lieutenant general of the kingdom in 1561, when his wife allowed the Huguenots to sack the chapel of Vendôme and the churches of the town in 1562, he threatened to send her to a convent. He often disappointed his followers and was manipulated by his superiors and he laid siege to Rouen and was mortally wounded on 13 November 1562. He died at Les Andelys, Eure, with his wife, Jeanne III of Navarre, he had the following issue, Henry, Duke of Beaumont Henry IV of France Louis, Count of Marle Madeleine Catherine. Married Henry II, Duke of Lorraine in 1599, with his mistress, Louise de La Béraudière de lIsle Rouhet, King Anthony had a son named Charles. Charles was Archbishop of Rouen from 1554 until 1610, achaintre, Nicolas Louis, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon, Vol.2, Publisher Mansut Fils,4 Rue de lÉcole de Médecine, Paris,1825. Bergin, Joseph, The making of the French episcopate, 1589–1661, bryson, David, Queen Jeanne and the Promised Land, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden,1999. Dupuy, Trevor, Curt Johnson and David L. Bongard, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, Castle Books, duruy, Victor, John Franklin Jameson and Mabell Shippie Clarke Smith, A history of France, Thomas Y. Dussieux, Louis, Généalogie de la maison de Bourbon, de 1256 à1871, the French wars of religion, 1562–1629, Cambridge University Press, New York,2005. Robin, Diana Maury, Larsen, Anne R. and Levin, Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance, Italy, France, and England

15.
1518
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Year 1518 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. April 18 – Bona Sforza is crowned as Queen of Poland, may 26 – A Transit of Venus occurs. July – Dancing Plague of 1518, a case of dancing mania in Strasbourg in which many die from constant dancing. August – Construction of the Manchester Grammar School is completed in England, october 3 – The Treaty of London temporarily ensures peace in Western Europe. A plague of fire ants devastates crops on Hispaniola. Henricus Grammateus publishes Ayn neu Kunstlich Buech in Vienna, containing the earliest printed use of plus and minus signs for arithmetic

16.
1562
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Year 1562 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. January 6 – Shane ONeill of Tyrone pleads his cause at the Palace of Whitehall in London before Queen Elizabeth I of England and he returns to Ireland on May 26 and resumes his rebellious activities by November. January 17 – Huguenots are recognized under the Edict of Saint-Germain, january 18 Council of Trent reconvened after a gap of 10 years. First performance of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackvilles play Gorboduc before Queen Elizabeth I of England and it is the first known English tragedy and the first English language play to employ blank verse. March 1 – Over 80 Huguenots are massacred by the ultra-Catholic Francis, Duke of Guise in Wassy-sur-Blaise, protestant forces led by Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and Gaspard de Coligny quickly seize control of Orléans, Rouen, and other cities throughout France. May 1 – Jean Ribault, French navigator, lands in Florida and later establishes a Huguenot colony at Charlesfort on Parris Island, july 12 – Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya. August – The beginning of the Wiesensteig witch trial, september 20 – Treaty of Hampton Court between Queen Elizabeth I of England and Huguenot leader Louis, Prince of Condé. September 22 – Maximilian, son of the Emperor Ferdinand I, october – John Hawkins initiates the English trans-Atlantic slave trade, shipping slaves from Sierra Leone on the Guinea Coast to Hispaniola in the Caribbean. As a result, the Spanish prohibit English ships from trading at their new world ports, october 4 – English forces under Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, land at Le Havre to aid the Huguenots. October 19 – La Herradura naval disaster,25 ships sank in a storm, october 26 – Rouen is captured by Royalist forces under Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, who is mortally wounded. November 5 – In Scotland, the rebellion of George Gordon, Earl of Huntly is crushed by James Stewart, Earl of Moray, November 20 – Maximilian of Bohemia is elected King of the Romans. The official leaders of armies are captured in the battle. The Mughal Emperor Akbar conquers Malwa and its last Sultan, Baz Bahadur, the Church of England approves the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, defining its doctrinal stance. Dudley Grammar School is established and Greshams School is granted a charter in England. Fausto Sozzini publishes Brevis explicatio in primum Johannis caput, originating Socinianism, giacomo Barozzi da Vignola publishes Regola delli cinque ordini darchitettura, it will become in succeeding centuries the most published book in architectural history

17.
Jeanne d'Albret
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Jeanne dAlbret, also known as Jeanne III, was the queen regnant of Navarre from 1555 to 1572. She married Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, and was the mother of Henry of Bourbon, who became King Henry III of Navarre and IV of France and she became the Duchess of Vendôme by marriage. Jeanne was the spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenot movement. After her public conversion to Calvinism in 1560, she joined the Huguenot forces, during the first and second war she remained relatively neutral, but in the third war she fled to La Rochelle, becoming the de facto leader. After negotiating a treaty with Catherine de Medici and arranging the marriage of her son, Henry, to Catherines daughter, Marguerite. Jeanne was the last active ruler of Navarre, in 1620, Jeannes grandson Louis XIII annexed Navarre to the French crown. Her mother, the daughter of Louise of Savoy and Charles and she received an excellent education under the tutelage of humanist Nicolas Bourbon. Described as a frivolous and high-spirited princess, she also, at an early age, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, offered to have her married to his son and heir, Philip, to settle the status of the Kingdom of Navarre. Despite having been whipped into obedience, she, nevertheless, continued to protest and had to be carried bodily to the altar by the Constable of France, before her wedding, Jeanne signed two documents which she had officers of her household sign. She remained at the royal court, after the death of Francis in 1547 and the accession of Henry II to the French throne, Jeanne married Antoine de Bourbon, first prince of the blood, at Moulins in the Bourbonnais on 20 October 1548. The marriage was intended to consolidate territorial possessions in the north and south of France, Jeannes marriage to Antoine was described by author Mark Strage as having been a romantic match. A contemporary of Jeanne said of her that she had no pleasure or occupation except in talking about or writing to and she does it in company and in private. The waters cannot quench the flame of her love, in 1554, he fathered an illegitimate son, Charles, by Louise de La Béraudière de lIsle Rouhet, a court beauty known as La belle Rouet. Antoines frequent absences left Jeanne in Béarn to rule alone, and in charge of a household which she managed with a firm. The couple had five children, of only two, Henry, king of France and king of Navarre, and Catherine, duchess of Lorraine. On 25 May 1555, Henry II of Navarre died, at which time Jeanne, on 18 August 1555 at Pau, Jeanne and Antoine were crowned in a joint ceremony according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The previous month, a coin commemorating the new reign had been minted. It was inscribed in Latin with the words, Antonius et Johanna Dei gratia reges Navarrae Domini Bearni

18.
Navarre
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The first documented use of a name resembling Navarra, Nafarroa, or Naparroa is a reference to navarros, in Eginhards early 9th Century chronicle of the feats of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. Other Royal Frankish Annals feature nabarros, there are two proposed etymologies for the name. Basque nabar, brownish, multicolor (i. e. in contrast to the mountainous lands north of the original County of Navarre. Basque naba, valley, plain + Basque herri, the linguist Joan Coromines considers naba to be linguistically part of a wider Vasconic or Aquitanian language substrate, rather than Basque per se. During the Roman Empire, the Vascones, a tribe who populated the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. In the mountainous north, the Vascones escaped large-scale Roman settlement, not so the flatter areas to the south, which were amenable to large-scale Roman farming—vineyards, olives, and wheat crops. Neither the Visigoths nor the Franks ever completely subjugated the area, the Vascones included neighbouring tribes as of the 7th century. In AD778, the Basques defeated a Frankish army at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass and that kingdom reached its zenith during the reign of King Sancho III, comprising most of the Christian realms to the south of the Pyrenees, and even a short overlordship of Gascony. When Sancho III died in 1035, the Kingdom of Navarre was divided between his sons and it never fully recovered its political power, while its commercial importance increased as traders and pilgrims poured into the kingdom throughout the Way of Saint James. In 1200, Navarre lost the key western Basque districts to Alphonse VIII of Castile, Navarre then contributed with a small but symbolic force of 200 knights to the decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 against the Almohads. The native line of kings came to an end in 1234, however, the Navarrese kept most of their strong laws and institutions. To the south of the Pyrenees, Navarre was annexed to the Crown of Castile, but keeping a separate status. A Chartered Government was established, and the managed to keep home rule. After the 1839 Convention of Bergara, a version of home rule was passed in 1839. The relocation of customs from the Ebro river to the Pyrenees in 1841 prompted the collapse of Navarre’s customary cross-Pyrenean trade, amid instability in Spain, Carlists took over in Navarre and the rest of the Basque provinces. The end of the Third Carlist War saw a wave of Spanish centralization directly affecting Navarre. In 1893-1894 the Gamazada popular uprising took place centred in Pamplona against Madrids governmental decisions breaching the 1841 chartered provisions. Except for a faction, all parties in Navarre agreed on the need for a new political framework based on home rule within the Laurak Bat

19.
Castillo de la Real Fuerza
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The Castillo de la Real Fuerza is a star fort on the western side of the harbour in Havana, Cuba, set back from the entrance, and bordering the Plaza de Armas. Originally built to defend against attack by pirates, it suffered from a strategic position. The fort is considered to be the oldest stone fort in the Americas, a previous fort, the Fuerza Vieja, was badly damaged in 1555 during an attack on Havana by the French privateer Jacques de Sores and eventually was demolished in 1582. In 1558 Bartolomé Sánchez, an appointed by King Philip II of Spain, began work on the new fort. The Fuerza Vieja was set back from the harbour, but the new fort was planned to be closer to the harbour to give it a strategic position. The ironworks were established in 1558, but the first stones were not laid until 1562, construction was delayed due to complaints from local residents forced to relocate to make way for the building and from disagreements between Sánchez and the Governor of Havana. The fort was not completed until 1577, with slaves and French prisoners providing most of the labour, built of limestone quarried from the Havana shoreline, the fortification incorporated thick sloping walls, a moat and drawbridge. The governor, Francisco Carreño, ordered the addition an upper storey as barracks and a store, but on completion. Instead Juan de Tejeda adopted it as the residence of the Governor of Havana, subsequent governors made changes to the building. The façade of the fortress was demolished in 1851 to allow O’Reilly Street to go all the way to the docks, and prevent the fort from overshadowing El Templete and she spent many years scanning the horizon for signs of his returning ship. The fort was home to the National Archive from 1899 and the National Library from 1938 up until 1957, after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the fort housed the offices of the National Commission of Monuments and the Centre of Preservation, Restoration and Museology. The fort served briefly as the Museum of Arms, but the conditions within the fortress were not conducive to the preservation of the displays. In 1977, on the 400th anniversary of completion, the building was inaugurated as a museum and used to display exhibitions of Cuban contemporary, in 1990, it became the National Museum of Cuban Ceramics. In 2010, Castillo de la Real Fuerza reopened as Cuba’s premier maritime museum, the museum features a huge four-metre model of the Santisima Trinidad located on the main floor with a large interactive touch screen in Spanish, French, and English. The exhibit describes life aboard an 18th-century ship-of-the-line, the original ship was launched into Havana Bay on 2 March 1769 and was the largest ship in the world in the 18th century, with 140 cannons on four gun decks. She was one of four Cuban-built ships at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, downstairs you will find ancient navigational instruments, underwater archaeological artifacts, and gold and silver from the colonial era. Also note the original weathervane, La Giraldilla, while her replica moves in the breeze on the top of the fortress tower, which also commands a fantastic view of the city. The second level of the museum hosts many historic and contemporary models of ships with links to Cuba and is also a good location for viewing the harbour

20.
Hernando de Soto
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A vast undertaking, de Sotos North American expedition ranged throughout the southeastern United States searching for gold, and a passage to China. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River in what is now Guachoya, Arkansas or Ferriday and he was born in Jerez de los Caballeros, in the current province of Badajoz. However, three towns—Badajoz, Barcarrota and Jerez de los Caballeros—claim to be his birthplace and he spent time as a child at each place, and he stipulated in his will that his body be interred at Jerez de los Caballeros, where other members of his family were interred. The age of the Conquerors came on the heels of the Spanish reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Islamic forces, Spain and Portugal were filled with young men seeking a chance for military fame after the Moors were defeated. With discovery of new lands to the west, they were attracted to whispers of glory, De Soto sailed to the New World with the first Governor of Panama, Pedrarias Dávila. In 1520 he participated in Gaspar de Espinosas expedition to Veragua, there he acquired an encomienda and a public office in Leon, Nicaragua. Brave leadership, unwavering loyalty, and ruthless schemes for the extortion of native villages for their chiefs became de Sotos hallmarks during the Conquest of Central America. He gained fame as an excellent horseman, fighter, and tactician, in 1530, de Soto became a regidor of León, Nicaragua. He led an expedition up the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula searching for a passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean to enable trade with the Orient, the richest market in the world. Failing that, and without means to further, de Soto, upon Pedro Arias Dávilas death. Bringing his own men on ships which he hired, de Soto joined Francisco Pizarro at his first base of Tumbes shortly before departure for the interior of present-day Peru, Pizarro quickly made de Soto one of his captains. When Pizarro and his men first encountered the army of the Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca, when Pizarros men attacked Atahualpa and his guard the next day, de Soto led one of the three groups of mounted soldiers. De Soto was sent to the camp of the Incan army, during 1533, the Spanish held Atahualpa captive in Cajamarca for months while his subjects paid for his ransom by filling a room with gold and silver objects. During this captivity, de Soto became friendly with Atahualpa and taught him to play chess, by the time the ransom had been completed, the Spanish became alarmed by rumors of an Incan army advancing on Cajamarca. Pizarro sent de Soto with 200 soldiers to scout for the rumored army, while de Soto was gone, the Spanish in Cajamarca decided to kill Atahualpa to prevent his rescue. De Soto returned to report that he found no signs of an army in the area, after executing Atahualpa, Pizarro and his men headed to Cuzco, the capital of the Incan Empire. As the Spanish force approached Cuzco, Pizarro sent his brother Hernando, the advance guard fought a pitched battle with Incan troops in front of the city, but the battle had ended before Pizarro arrived with the rest of the Spanish party. The Incan army withdrew during the night, the Spanish plundered Cuzco, where they found much gold and silver

21.
Nostradamus
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Michel de Nostredame, usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French physician and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become widely famous. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555, the earliest ancestor who can be identified on the paternal side is Astruge of Carcassonne, who died about 1420. Michels known siblings included Delphine, Jean, Pierre, Hector, Louis, Bertrand, Jean II, at the age of 15 Nostredame entered the University of Avignon to study for his baccalaureate. After little more than a year, he was forced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors during an outbreak of the plague, after leaving Avignon, Nostredame, by his own account, traveled the countryside for eight years from 1521 researching herbal remedies. In 1529, after years as an apothecary, he entered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in medicine. The expulsion document, BIU Montpellier, Register S2 folio 87, however, some of his publishers and correspondents would later call him Doctor. After his expulsion, Nostredame continued working, presumably still as an apothecary, in 1531 Nostredame was invited by Jules-César Scaliger, a leading Renaissance scholar, to come to Agen. There he married a woman of uncertain name, who bore him two children, in 1534 his wife and children died, presumably from the plague. After their deaths, he continued to travel, passing through France, finally, in 1547, he settled in Salon-de-Provence in the house which exists today, where he married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde, with whom he had six children—three daughters and three sons. But it seems he could have dabbled in horoscopes, necromancy, scrying, following popular trends, he wrote an almanac for 1550, for the first time Latinising his name from Nostredame to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by the success that he decided to write one or more annually. Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies, as well as at least eleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, in March. When obliged to attempt this himself on the basis of the tables of the day, he frequently made errors. He then began his project of writing a book of one thousand mainly French quatrains, for technical reasons connected with their publication in three installments, the last fifty-eight quatrains of the seventh Century have not survived in any extant edition. The quatrains, published in a book titled Les Propheties, received a reaction when they were published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane, catherine de Médicis, wife of King Henry II of France, was one of Nostradamus greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted at unnamed threats to the family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them. In 1538 he came into conflict with the Church in Agen after an Inquisitor visited the area looking for Anti-Catholic views

22.
Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon
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Nicolas Durand, sieur de Villegaignon, also Villegagnon was a Commander of the Knights of Malta, and later a French naval officer who attempted to help the Huguenots in France escape persecution. A notable public figure in his time, Villegaignon was a mixture of soldier, scientist, explorer, adventurer and he fought pirates in the Mediterranean and participated in several wars. Villegagnon was born in Provins, Seine et Marne, France and he was ordained as a Knight of the Order in 1521. Nicolas de Villegagnon fought in campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. Villegagnon participated in the expedition against Algiers in 1541. He also fought against the Ottomans in Hungary in 1542 following the Siege of Buda until 1546. In 1548, he commanded the French naval fleet that took Mary, Queen of Scots, then five years old and this was a daring operation, covertly sailing galleys around Scotland, while the English fleet was expecting an attack from the other direction. Back in Scotland in March 1549, in February he helped capture Ferniehirst Castle from the English, the commanders then discussed their next move. Nicolas insisted they should halt and build a fortification at Roxburgh, the Scottish high command held a vote which was inconclusive, but finally, after the intervention of the French ambassador Henri Cleutin, Nicolass plan was adopted. Villegagnon helped repel the Ottomans at Malta in 1551, before they went on to lead the Invasion of Gozo and he was then present at the Siege of Tripoli against the Ottoman Empire, and wrote an account about it in 1553. Nicolas de Villegagnon staunchly defended him and exposed the duplicity of dHomedes, a disagreement over Eucharistic theology soon caused Villegagnon and the Calvinists to quarrel. Villegagnon eventually expelled those who held to Calvins view of the Eucharist from his fortified island, villegagnons initial plan was to help the Huguenots establish a colony in the New World. After a number of battles against the Portuguese, the French colonists were defeated by Estácio de Sá, Villegaignon had already returned to France, in 1559, disgusted with the infighting between Catholics and Protestants in the small colony. He had left the colony under the command of his nephew Bois-le-Comte, endeavouring to obtain more funds, the internal fight against the Calvinists however made colonial adventures less of a priority for the Crown. After the colony fell to the Portuguese, Villegagnon finally agreed to give up his claims to France Antarctique after receiving 30,000 écus from the Portuguese Crown, in 1560, Villegagnon challenged Calvin to a theological debate on the eucharist, which the latter declined. He became actively involved against the Protestants, and participated in the repression of the Amboise conspiracy. New attempts were made to create a Huguenot colony in the New World, again at the instigation of Coligny, from 1568, Villegagnon became the representative of the Order of Malta at the French Court. The next year, in 1569, he published in Paris a new controversy about the eucharist, entitled De Consecratione, Villegagnon became Commander of the Order of Malta Commandery in Beauvais, where he died on 9 January 1571, aged about 60

23.
Torcy, Seine-et-Marne
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Torcy is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the suburbs of Paris,21.8 km from the center of Paris. Torcy is a sub-prefecture of the department and the seat of an arrondissement, the commune of Torcy is part of the Val Maubuée sector, one of the four sectors in the new town of Marne-la-Vallée. Torcy is served by Torcy station on Paris RER line A, inhabitants of Torcy are called Torcéens. The suburbanization and affluence of the Vietnamese population in France has resulted in a shift in Torcy since the 1980s. As of 1998, about 5-6% of the population is made up of East Asians. There are ten public school groups in Torcy, along with three junior high schools and two senior high schools

24.
Brittany
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Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, at the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means Britons land. This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain and this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec

25.
Guanabara Bay
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Guanabara Bay is an oceanic bay located in Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias, four other municipalities surround the bays shores. Guanabara Bay is the second largest bay in area in Brazil, at 412 square kilometres, Guanabara Bay is 31 kilometres long and 28 kilometres wide at its maximum. Its 1.5 kilometres wide mouth is flanked at the tip by the Pico do Papagaio. The name Guanabara comes from the Tupi language, goanã-pará, from gwa bay, plus nã similar to, traditionally, it is also translated as the bosom of sea. Guanabara Bay was first encountered by Europeans on January 1,1502, as a result, the name of the bay was soon fixed as Rio de Janeiro. Later, the city was named after the bay, natives of the Tamoio and Tupiniquim tribes inhabited the shores of the bay. They stayed briefly on Lajes Island, then moved to Serigipe Island, near the shore and they were the Santa Cruz, São João, Lajes and Villegaignon forts, forming a fearsome crossfire rectangle of big naval guns. Other islands were adapted by the Navy to host naval storehouses, hospitals, drydocks, oil reservoirs, the Port of Rio de Janeiro, as well as the citys two airports, Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport and Santos Dumont Airport, are located on its shores. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro main campus is located on the artificial Fundão Island, a maze of smaller bridges interconnect the two largest islands, Fundão and Governador, to the mainland. There is an Environmental Protection Area, which is located mostly in the municipality of Guapimirim, Guanabara Bays once rich and diversified ecosystem has suffered extensive damage in recent decades, particularly along its mangrove areas. The bay has been impacted by urbanization, deforestation, and pollution of its waters with sewage, garbage. As of 2014, more than 70% of the sewage from 12 million inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro now flows into the bay untreated, there have been three major oil spills in Guanabara Bay. The most recent was in 2000 when an underwater pipeline released 1,300,000 litres of oil into the bay. Recovery measures are currently being attempted, but more than a decade after the incident, one of the worlds largest landfills is located at Jardim Gramacho adjacent to Guanabara Bay. It was closed in 2012 after 34 years of operation, the landfill attracted attention from environmentalists and it supported 1700 people scavenging for recyclable materials. As part of the preparations for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the government was supposed to improve the conditions, there have been concerns that the efforts may only be short-term and abandoned following the Games, as there would be little political incentive to continue with them. Bell, Alured Gray, 1870-1925 The Beautiful Rio de Janeiro, london, William Heinemann,1914 lets go back to Rio, RGSSA blog post, images of Guanabara Bay taken 1914 Jablonski, Silvio, de Freitas Azevedo, Alexandre, Moreira, Luiz Henrique Arantes

26.
Calvinism
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Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. The term Calvinism can be misleading, because the tradition which it denotes has always been diverse. The movement was first called Calvinism by Lutherans who opposed it, early influential Reformed theologians include Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Martin Bucer, William Farel, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Theodore Beza, and John Knox. In the twentieth century, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, B. B, Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Karl Barth, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Cornelius Van Til, and Gordon Clark were influential. Contemporary Reformed theologians include J. I, sproul, Timothy J. Keller, John Piper, David Wells, and Michael Horton. Reformed churches may exercise several forms of polity, most are presbyterian or congregationalist. Calvinism is largely represented by Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist traditions, the biggest Reformed association is the World Communion of Reformed Churches with more than 80 million members in 211 member denominations around the world. There are more conservative Reformed federations such as the World Reformed Fellowship, Calvinism is named after John Calvin. It was first used by a Lutheran theologian in 1552 and it was a common practice of the Catholic Church to name what they perceived to be heresy after its founder. Nevertheless, the term first came out of Lutheran circles, Calvin denounced the designation himself, They could attach us no greater insult than this word, Calvinism. It is not hard to guess where such a deadly hatred comes from that they hold against me, despite its negative connotation, this designation became increasingly popular in order to distinguish Calvinists from Lutherans and from newer Protestant branches that emerged later. Moreover, these churches claim to be—in accordance with John Calvins own words—renewed accordingly with the order of gospel. Since the Arminian controversy, the Reformed tradition—as a branch of Protestantism distinguished from Lutheranism—divided into two groups, Arminians and Calvinists. However, it is now rare to call Arminians a part of the Reformed tradition, some have also argued that Calvinism as a whole stresses the sovereignty or rule of God in all things including salvation. First-generation Reformed theologians include Huldrych Zwingli, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Capito, John Oecolampadius, scripture was also viewed as a unified whole, which led to a covenantal theology of the sacraments of baptism and the Lords Supper as visible signs of the covenant of grace. Another Reformed distinctive present in these theologians was their denial of the presence of Christ in the Lords supper. Each of these also understood salvation to be by grace alone. Martin Luther and his successor Philipp Melanchthon were undoubtedly significant influences on these theologians, the doctrine of justification by faith alone was a direct inheritance from Luther

27.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie

28.
Geneva
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Geneva is the second most populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic, the municipality has a population of 198,072, and the canton has 484,736 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France, within Swiss territory, the commuter area named Métropole lémanique contains a population of 1.25 million. This area is essentially spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, Geneva is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, Geneva was ranked as the worlds ninth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, ahead of Frankfurt, and third in Europe behind London and Zürich. A2009 survey by Mercer found that Geneva has the third-highest quality of life of any city in the world, the city has been referred to as the worlds most compact metropolis and the Peace Capital. In 2009 and 2011, Geneva was ranked as, respectively, the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava, probably from a Celtic toponym *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis, the name takes various forms in modern languages, Geneva /dʒᵻˈniːvə/ in English, French, Genève, German, Genf, Italian, Ginevra, and Romansh, Genevra. The city in origin shares its name, *genawa estuary, with the Italian port city of Genoa, Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, and acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, around this time the House of Savoy came to dominate the city. In the 15th century, a republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In 1541, with Protestantism in the ascendancy, John Calvin, by the 18th century, however, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France also tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, in 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, in 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12 North, 6°09 East, at the end of Lake Geneva. It is surrounded by two chains, the Alps and the Jura

29.
Palace of Fontainebleau
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The Palace of Fontainebleau or Château de Fontainebleau is located 55 kilometres southeast of the centre of Paris, and is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and later château was the residence of French monarchs from Louis VII through Napoleon III, Napoleon I abdicated his throne there before being exiled to Elba. Today, it is a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is located in the commune of Fontainebleau. The earliest record of a castle at Fontainebleau dates to 1137. It became a residence and hunting lodge of the Kings of France because of the abundant game. It took its name one of the springs, the fountain de Bliaud, located now in the English garden. He commissioned the architect Gilles le Breton to build a palace in the new Renaissance style and it included monumental Porte Dorée, as its southern entrance. As well as a monumental Renaissance stairway, the portique de Serlio, beginning in about 1528, Francis constructed the Gallery Francis I, which allowed him to pass directly from his apartments to the chapel of the Trinitaires. He brought the architect Sebastiano Serlio from Italy, and the Florentine painter Giovanni Battista di Jacopo, known as Rosso Fiorentino, another Italian painter, Francesco Primaticcio from Bologna, joined later in the decoration of the palace. Together their style of decoration became known as the first School of Fontainebleau and this was the first great decorated gallery built in France. Broadly speaking, at Fontainebleau the Renaissance was introduced to France, in about 1540, Francis began another major addition to the chateau. Using land on the east side of the chateau purchased from the order of the Trinitaires, he began to build a new square of buildings around a large courtyard. It was enclosed on the north by the wing of the Ministers, on the east by the wing of Ferrare, the chateau was surrounded by a new park in the style of the Italian Renaissance garden, with pavilions and the first grotto in France. Primaticcio created more monumental murals for the gallery of Ulysses, following the death of Francis I, King Henry II decided to continue and expand the chateau. The King and his wife chose the architects Philibert Delorme and Jean Bullant to do the work and they extended the east wing of the lower court, and decorated it with the first famous horseshoe-shaped staircase. In the oval court, they transformed the loggia planned by Francois into a Salle des Fétes or grand ballroom with a coffered ceiling. Facing the courtyard of the fountain and the pond, they designed a new building. At Henris orders, the Nymphe de Fontainebleau was installed at the entrance of Château dAnet

The pope (Latin: papa from Greek: πάππας pappas, a child's word for "father"), also known as the supreme pontiff (from …

Gregory the Great (c 540–604) who established medieval themes in the Church, in a painting by Carlo Saraceni, c. 1610, Rome.

As part of the Catholic Reformation, Pope Paul III (1534–49) initiated the Council of Trent (1545–63), which established the triumph of the papacy over those who sought to reconcile with Protestants or oppose Papal claims.

The House of Habsburg (German pronunciation: [ˈhaːpsbʊʁk], traditionally spelled Hapsburg in English), also called …

Image: Familienwappen Habsburg Stroehl

Growth of the Habsburg Empire in Central Europe

A map of the dominion of the Habsburgs following the Battle of Mühlberg (1547) as depicted in The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912); Habsburg lands are shaded green, but do not include the lands of the Holy Roman Empire over which they presided, nor the vast Castilian holdings outside of Europe, particularly in the New World.

Hernando de Soto (c. 1495 – May 21, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first European expedition …

Image: De Soto by Telfer & Sartain

Library of Congress' engraving. The Spanish caption reads: "HERNANDO DE SOTO: Extremaduran, one of the discoverers and conquerors of Peru: he travelled across all of Florida and defeated its previously invincible natives, he died on his expedition in the year 1542 at the age of 42".

Francis, Duke of Anjou and Alençon (Hercule François; 18 March 1555 – 10 June 1584) was the youngest son of Henry II of …

Image: Fd'Alençon

The Duke enters Antwerp, greeted by cannons.

Satirical Flemish painting painted c.1586, three years after Anjou's Antwerp fiasco; depicting a cow which represents the Dutch provinces. King Philip II of Spain is vainly trying to ride the cow, drawing blood with his spurs. Queen Elizabeth I is feeding it while William of Orange holds it steady by the horns. The cow is defecating on the Duke of Anjou, who is holding its tail.